Woodlawn's Chris Davis flew under the radar of most college recruiters this season. (For The Birmingham News / Rick Zerby)Pssst. Wanna know a secret?

There was a football player in the state who went undiscovered by the recruiting Web sites. He's been here in Birmingham all along.

But somehow Rivals.com has yet to put stars next to his name. Somehow Scout.com doesn't have the 5-foot-11 Chris Davis of Woodlawn on its hot prospects list.

There is not a single player in the Yellowhammer State more likely to make a man miss on a given play. Players like Stanhope's DeMarcus Milliner may be just as good, but I'd need to see reels of game film to be convinced they are any better playing the game now than Davis.

Davis has legit height, legit size and a dazzling array of moves not seen on area prep fields since Deuce Palmer lit up Friday nights.

Fairfield coach Jim Vakakes has gone on record with that comparison several times over the years he's lost sleep gearing up his defenses to face Davis.

"Palmer had a little more help with him when he played," Vakakes said. "Chris Davis has all the potential in the world. If we would have had him, there is no telling how explosive our offense would be. I bet he's in the top five in the state. He has to be. There's nobody we played this year with more God-given talent."

Davis was named to the News' All-Metro team as a sophomore. If the 5-foot-11 senior athlete was at a Clay-Chalkville or a Hoover or a Vestavia Hills, he would be a serious candidate for Mr. Football.

But he's finally gotten noticed. South Carolina was the first SEC school to offer last month. Auburn offered him the day before Halloween.

Auburn assistant Curtis Luper offered Davis. The Tigers wanted him to come on a campus visit earlier this season. But that was the day where almost every game around Birmingham got postponed by rain until Saturday.

Davis has a solid academic transcript and only awaits his first ACT score before he's fully qualified. It appears that Auburn will be his eventual destination.

"That was where he was leaning all along since Auburn is so close," Woodlawn coach Bruce Breland said. "He really liked Auburn. It is a good fit for him and he'd told me the last time we talked about it if they offered he was going to take that offer. And they've offered now. I think it's just a matter of time."

Davis scored 60 of the team's 109 points this year. He ran for 877 yards. The official average was 6.5 yards per carry.

Anyone who saw Woodlawn try to block and tackle on a consistent basis would know Davis got at least 450 of those yards on his own.

His presence at Woodlawn underscores how even elite recruits can fall through the cracks. The Colonels do not have the resources of other state programs.

It's hard for Davis to go to those elite recruiting combines and evaluation camps for those Web analysts to ply his wares against the likes of the household names with the kids and all the stars.

Recruiting in 2009 is all about marketing. The most aggressive traits like Youtube.com and DVD sleeves going out in the mail after every game are the norm.

It's good to see that maybe Birmingham's biggest star was finally found.